Some questions regarding the game
 

Hello there,
I've bought the game a few days ago and I'm loving it. I've played SPWaW before, but since I couldn't run it on linux I had to abandon it, but I don't have regrets!

I have two questions for you. The first is about artillery. I've noticed that after a strike, sometimes my planned hex has moved away into another one. Why is this?

The second one is about the scenario nr 2, Stonne. I'm finding out that the German troops are almost bulletproof, while my frenchies are a couple of greens. The jerries even fight back tank fire withot fear. While I understand that this are SS troops, while mine are French army's 1940 troops, my question is: is it supposed to be like that or am I doing something wrong? Thanks!

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

I moved this thread out of campaigns and scenarios

Your artillery moved away from the hex you aimed it at likely becasue it wasn't being spotted directly by the unit that called the fire but even spotted artillery will sometimes stray but if you have LOS to the hex you can correct easier than if you don't. The game guide deals with that. Read through "Artillery Bombardment" If you do not have direct LOS to the target hex with a spotter the aimpoint will stray

Re Stonne. The French have 60 Morale and Experience. The Germans have 75 Morale and Experience and that makes a big difference. You'll need to be careful and work hard to win as the French in that scenario.

Don

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Sorry for posting it in the wrong section, at the beginning I was going to ask only the scenario thing, so that's why it was posted there. Thanks for reply. I'm used to SPWaW, so some things are new to me. Indeed I checked too the German morale and experience, and I understood the reason it was so hard. The tanks have even worse values making them poorly effective money trashes. :)

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Dispite being outwardly similar there are significant differences between SPWW2 and WaW.

The artillery point of impact will drift if there is no LOS. Because the game allows God like views of the battlefield this prevents people from calling in arty on targets with GPS accuracy when the target hex is well out of sight of any spotter he may have. This simulates an artillery shoot when all the real life spotter has to go by is an occasionally glimpse of smoke from explosions sort-of-maybe in the general vacinity of where he asked the batteries to fire because he suspected this may be an area where enemy troops might be. It takes longer to correct fire when you have no LOS and the corrections take up more game time to execute. If you want accurate artillery fire you need a spotter who can see the target hex and if he can see the target any corrections you may want to make can be made much more quickly than if he could not see the target hex


Don

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

That's cool indeed. I guess FOs perform this task better.

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

As a general rule yes. You may find in a campaign as experience levels rise that a HQ may equal a FO for speed in calling arty but it's always best to have a FO at the front that can see the target hext. Your HQ is too valuable to risk there.

Don

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

By playing more questions come to mind. Here's the next:
when setting overwatch hex, the lower sections about ranges applies to the OH or to the distance from the unit itself?

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

From the Game guide

CD-Extended features tab

OP-FIRE FILTERING section

The lower numbers apply to 1)

Don

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Thank you! I couldn't figure out where to find this on the guide. Isn't there a pdf version of it, so one could search trough the whole file?

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

There is no PDF version. We have no way of working with PDF and I'm not a big fan of the format anyway.

I know it's temping for new players to simply start up the game and play especially if they are already familiar with the original Steel Panthers or one of it's derivatives but even a quick read through of the HTML game guide is better than not reading it and will at least give new players an idea of where to find answers to any question they might have. The guide that comes with the CD is a "quick start" guide. The HTML version is updated with every new release

Don

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

I'll give it a deeper read then.

OT: How come you have no way to work with PDF? Even OpenOffice allows a complete export of files into .pdf format.

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Because it's in html, I find the Explorer menu bar, EDIT...FIND ON THIS PAGE (Hotkey Ctrl F) works quite well for searching. Particularly as most of guide is in a couple of very long pages.

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Since you are on Linux, try HTMLdoc to dump it to PDF or use Bluefish or another editor to turn it into a single page, grep it .... the list goes on. If I need it, I open it in another work space and I keep a copy on my USB key.

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

So I'm actually the only one who prefers pdf over html! :D
Thanks for the advice!

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

No, you're not the only one... Though FF provides pretty good search functions on HTML pages, I too would love a proper PDF. Better formatting, better presentation, a proper index, proper TOC navigation, a single file instead of dozens...

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

I have an Acrobat 'write' version, which I rarely use, so I just created a PDF game guide. It was surprisingly easy and only took about 2 minutes. I guess there should be some benefit for all that Adobe bloatware. :rolleyes:

Anyway, you guys are right, it is easier to navigate on 'one page'.

It's 372 pages long, and weighs about 12MB. Perhaps I wait until after the new release, then I'll create a 4.0 version and upload it somewhere.


Cross

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Do we need to offer any further explanations WHY we are not fans of PDF's ....???

Don

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Hi Don,

I'm no fan of Adobe software. That said, the PDF is actually smaller than the current html files which come to about 18MB after you've included all the graphics files. The PDF is one file, compared to the >300 needed for the html.

But I only have Adobe software on my PC because I have no choice. Their software is definately bloated and self-important. I only install the Foxit PDF reader on my boys computers.

Simon

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Exactly. A single PDF is easier to handle and actually smaller than the files required for the HTML manual. Not to mention that it's much easier for printing, if you're so inclined. There's a reason why virtually every game today has their manual in PDF form available. ;)

Cross, if you convert the manual for the next version to PDF, please make if public for download.

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

Every other game that states it went to PDF manuals to make it easy to update, never updates. OK, some do but you get the idea.

Camo however, always updates the manual with every update. Kudos.

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

There's not exactly any difference between having to maintain a bunch of HTML files or the PDF source and rendering one for each update...

Re: Some questions regarding the game
 

I'll tell you what......after the next patch goes out if someone wants to produce a PDF version of the Game Guide and post it someplace I'm "OK" with it as long as everything in it is exactly what we put in the HTML guide.

Andy recalls someone else tried this in the past and no one knows what became of it.

I have made some minor changes to the guide to make it easier to get from one page to the other which should also make it easier to find things

Don